Excommunication

Bishop Kay Schmalhausen of Ayaviri, Peru believes current punishments for both the crime of clerical sexual abuse (usually expulsion from the clerical state) and the cover-up are ineffective, and suggested harsher penalties including excommunication.

Five Catholic women who were excommunicated from the Diocese of Lincoln in the 1990s due to their membership in a group that pushes for changes in church policies pertaining to women could be allowed to fully participate in services again.

The Catholic Church has produced many anti-mafia campaigners in Italy, some of whom have been killed for their efforts. And a few years ago a Calabrian archbishop proposed a 10-year moratorium on the naming of godfathers when children are baptized to break the “padrino” system that mobsters use to spread their influence over the next generation.

Q. I’m curious about the fact that to mark the Year of Mercy, Pope Francis will allow all priests to absolve the sin of abortion. Why isn’t that true already? If I had committed such a sin, then went to confession and found that the priest couldn’t forgive me, that